Friday bullets, May 18, 2018

You know I write these posts the night before and schedule them for the next morning, right? If any of you think I am up and functioning enough to write a post and publish it by 7 am... well, when I stop laughing, I'll explain I'm not really a morning person. All this to say, this might be a short post because I am very tired.

• I am tired because I spent the entire day outside, planting things in the new vegetable garden. When I got up yesterday morning, I blithely thought that by spending the entire day doing this, I would be able to plant everything vegetable-wise that I wanted to get planted, and even had plans for what I would do the rest of the day once I was done. Ha! If only... after all day on my hands and knees in the garden, I am not quite half done. Starting a garden from scratch is no joke. Planting was the easy part. It was the chopping, turning, sifting, business that I had to do in order to plant that was the time consuming bit. I just keep telling myself that next year it will be so much easier. 
• Poor Nefertiti. She would so much love to be an indoor-outdoor cat. She sits in the window, staring out of the screen, and mews the most pathetic mews. She will also dash outdoors at every chance she gets. When she does get outside, she doesn't go far, but I just can't let her be an indoor-outdoor cat. First, her previous owners declawed her front feet, so while she has a terrific hiss, her actual defenses are somewhat compromised. The real reason, though, is the coyotes. We have a lot of coyotes around here, and living so close to a large forest preserve means we have more than most people. Our next door neighbors have lost innumerable outdoor cats as well as chickens to the dratted things; sometimes even in the middle of the day. (Often we will be awakened in the middle of the night by them, they are so loud.) While I am resigned to the eventual loss of a chicken to predators, I just can't let that happen to Nefertiti. And so she mews and mews and mews, poor thing.
• We have a few eggs to eat, thanks to our neighbor. See?

Those are a combination of turkey, duck, and chicken eggs. Everyone is very anxious to conduct extensive taste tests this morning to see if there is a discernible difference between the three. (For those who are curious, the turkey eggs are the longer, speckled ones; the duck eggs are the larger, rather pearlescent ones, and well, you know chicken eggs.)

• I've downloaded Duo Lingo onto my phone. I find it feeds my competitive, compulsive nature. Is it over the top that I'm working on four languages at once? They are all languages that I've studied at one time or another... French, Mandarin, Italian, and Vietnamese. The first three are pretty much just a review at the moment, and none of them is moving fast enough to even reach the level of challenging, but Vietnamese? Yikes! That is beyond challenging and hovering on the edge of baffling. I'm continuing to to plug away, though, waiting for it to suddenly start to make sense.
• There was a moment yesterday morning when I was talking with A. about a wedding we are all going to next month, that we are all going to this wedding. This means that I need to think about what people are going to wear. For some, this is easy, they will pick something out of their closet and wear that. For others, who either don't have any nice clothes that fit or have nice clothes that they are willing to wear, I will have to actually be proactive and go shopping. When I was younger I didn't mind shopping... I even enjoyed it. Now? There is nothing about it that I enjoy. 
• The evening poultry follies continue. A couple of chickens seem to have figured out that yummy treats await them when I call and shake the bag, but the vast majority don't seem to care. We are getting faster at herding the chickens into the pen, and the more people we have participating in the poultry follies the easier it is. Even me reminding them that there are marauding coyotes out there does not seem to make a difference to them. The ducks we have stopped trying to herd, and instead just resort to grabbing and putting them in. Though, two ducks last night did go in of their own accord. 
• L. has started to make birthday wish lists. Some of the thinks on her list I have never heard her mention as being something that she wanted. This makes me wonder if the wish list is more a 'random things that popped into my head' list.
• K. had an orthodontist appointment this week. On Orthodontist appointment days, I like to visit my old grocery store that I still miss on these days, and stock up on items I just cannot find out here. It's a good thing I had other plans for the trip, because the appointment took five minutes. FIVE. A five minute appointment for over two hours of driving time. Was I happy? No, I was not. 
• I have a new article published: Why Should I Adopt Internationally When There Are So Many Children in the US Who Need Homes? As usual, feel free to click and share.
• Finally, a heart felt thank you to those who have contributed to P.'s Go Fund Me page. We are extremely grateful! I may be a bit of a pest about this for the next few weeks. I don't like to draw attention to or ask for things for myself, but when it is for one of my children, I don't seem to have the same issues. So brace yourselves. If you haven't already, take a look at Phoebe Curry's Go Fund Me page and consider contributing a little something. Thank you!